IF Reincarnation is real with sufficient scientific evidence......

[Sole-Warrior]

Brief question: if reincarnation were real, would you be more fearful of death? or less.
In this hypothetical universe, reincarnation is RNG based, you might reincarnate into a cow raised to be slaughtered, or the daughter of a wealthy family. Your ability to choose what you can reincarnate is currently not technologically possible. In addition, you have died perhaps an infinite number of times in past lives as other lives and organisms. If you were to die today, you will reincarnate into another organism, or future conscious AI.

For me, this is less fearful than the abyss as there is hope that future civilization may place all reincarnated humans into respectable simulated AI bodies, even if I had been reborn as livestock, or as an insignificant insect, while having nothing after death just means just that, nothingness. Million years could go by, and you would not notice, feel, or think.

[Independent voter]

Just keep suiciding til you get one you like.

[apepi]

But Reincarnation is technically true. When I say that I mean your body turns into dust/gets eaten away by things. Our bodies then 'turn' into those kinds of things and we get recylced and used in many ways. Our 'soul' does not move on in any way or fashion, but physically it is true.

[Sole-Warrior]

But Reincarnation is technically true. When I say that I mean your body turns into dust/gets eaten away by things. Our bodies then 'turn' into those kinds of things and we get recylced and used in many ways. Our 'soul' does not move on in any way or fashion, but physically it is true.

that's true, the physical stuff in your body, and probably your brain too, the stuff that makes up your neurons will be replaced, I am talking about consciousness.

[Summer]

In what way would I still be me as a cow? Or another human?

I don't understand the whole concept of reincarnation really.

[Thelxi]

In your hypothetical reality, I wouldn't feel any different about death. If there were such a thing as karma though I'd love reincarnation to be a thing.

[Deletedaccount1]

That is impossible, there have been over 100 billion human beings born over the course of history an what are there today 7 billion? Maybe if population trend were more stable but it just doesn't make sense.

Voted for the first one anyway because fuck it

[Sliske]

Personally i think it would be quite depressing. Say i dropped dead right now and was reincarnated with my memories intact. My family? They think i'm dead, my new identity is a complete stranger. If i speak to them they would sign me into the loony bin. I have to watch my GF grieve, get over me and find someone new, etc. I can't think of anything more depressing than reincarnation with permanent memory.

I would fear death much, much more if that was the case. I honestly don't know how i'd handle that situation, its scary even thinking about it.

[Deletedaccount1]

I'd prefer being dead over being born in Africa or India actually

[taliey]

If consciousness can be transferred, how certain can one be sure that they have the same consciousness that they had in their prior life?

And if that can be true, what determines that? Is it some sort of physical component of consciousness?

The mere thought of it would so advance neuroscience!

[Sole-Warrior]

In what way would I still be me as a cow? Or another human?

I don't understand the whole concept of reincarnation really.

it would be you as a cow, but obv less intelligent and less "rich" in experience.

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If consciousness can be transferred, how certain can one be sure that they have the same consciousness that they had in their prior life?

And if that can be true, what determines that? Is it some sort of physical component of consciousness?

The mere thought of it would so advance neuroscience!

That all goes back into the hard problem of consciousness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_pr..._consciousness
I am not sure if we will ever fully conquer this issue. But I hope to have them answered eventually.

[Deleted]

Dont fear death as it is. It is somthing will happen to us all at some point, Fearing death is like fearing breathing, Fear of how we die is another thing though.

as to re-incarnation, I doubt if it was possible we would be allowed to keep our memories, imagine coming back as an animal, there are few animals that would have the brain capacity to store the lifetime memories of a human, what if we died, came back as a bird and died only to be re-incarnated again as a human ? would we have our human memories, or would we just remember flying, pecking at food, and sitting in a tree watching where the cat was ?

in the situation you propose I would be extremely fearful of death, simply because I would know there is a possibility that I could come back and not remember anything. Where as at the moment as we understand it, when we die that is it. Game over, No more memories, No more experiences, no more anything. And I am quite comfortable in having this option over one where I could come back knowing that I experienced it all before but having no memories of it.

[Deleted]

Brief question: if reincarnation were real, would you be more fearful of death? or less.
In this hypothetical universe, reincarnation is RNG based, you might reincarnate into a cow ready to be slaughtered, or the daughter of a wealthy family. Your ability to choose what you can reincarnate is currently not technologically possible. In addition, you have died perhaps an infinite number of times in past lives as other lives and organisms. If you were to die today, you will reincarnate into another organism, or future conscious AI.

For me, this is less fearful than the abyss as there is hope that future civilization may place all reincarnated humans into respectable simulated AI bodies, even if I had been reborn as livestock, or as an insignificant insect, while having nothing after death just means just that, nothingness. Million years could go by, and you would not notice, feel, or think.

I am not fearful of death at all. I fear more about my close ones and how would they feel than death itself.

Death is just like a night of sleep when you don't remember anything. Except without waking up part. So not all that bad tbh.

[GodlyBob]

Brief question: if reincarnation were real, would you be more fearful of death? or less.
In this hypothetical universe, reincarnation is RNG based, you might reincarnate into a cow ready to be slaughtered, or the daughter of a wealthy family. Your ability to choose what you can reincarnate is currently not technologically possible. In addition, you have died perhaps an infinite number of times in past lives as other lives and organisms. If you were to die today, you will reincarnate into another organism, or future conscious AI.

For me, this is less fearful than the abyss as there is hope that future civilization may place all reincarnated humans into respectable simulated AI bodies, even if I had been reborn as livestock, or as an insignificant insect, while having nothing after death just means just that, nothingness. Million years could go by, and you would not notice, feel, or think.

Couple things I wanted to nit pick real quick because it's bugging the hell out of me.

First, you wouldn't reincarnate as a "cow ready to be slaughtered," you would be a calf that would grow in to a cow that would then be slaughtered. You actually get a pretty sweet life...up to the premature end.

Second, You could not have had an infinite number of past lives. Life has not existed for an infinite amount of time, nor will be. Just by virtue of being made up of stuff, it is going to be finite.

That out of the way, it would not change my perception of death. I still think you should live the best life you possibly could have before croaking and make as big a positive different in the lives of those around you before you do. Just because you get another spin of the cosmic wheel of life after you die doesn't mean that you shouldn't try to make as big a difference now, as a human, before you become a butterfly and try to find some butterfly poon. Your accomplishments in this life carry over to the next to the exact same degree whether your eternity is abyssal or corporeal.

[Noomz]

Brief question: if reincarnation were real, would you be more fearful of death? or less.
In this hypothetical universe, reincarnation is RNG based, you might reincarnate into a cow ready to be slaughtered, or the daughter of a wealthy family. Your ability to choose what you can reincarnate is currently not technologically possible. In addition, you have died perhaps an infinite number of times in past lives as other lives and organisms. If you were to die today, you will reincarnate into another organism, or future conscious AI.

For me, this is less fearful than the abyss as there is hope that future civilization may place all reincarnated humans into respectable simulated AI bodies, even if I had been reborn as livestock, or as an insignificant insect, while having nothing after death just means just that, nothingness. Million years could go by, and you would not notice, feel, or think.

Why? In reincarnation, as it's spoken of in religion, you don't actually remember your previous life. So why would it matter? It wouldn't.

[ItachiZaku]

It would not change.

See, I would need more information. I mean, if I've been reincarnated many times already, then who gives a damn. I'm here, now, and I have no recollection of those other lives. You could possibly say that I like cats more than dogs because I was some feline in a previous life, or maybe got mauled to death by a pack of wolves, or perhaps I was a disgusting hyena pup that was eaten by my cackle of hyena bretheren? If my soul were torn asunder for a million years before reincarnation, I'm not aware.

The conditions of the question, make answers fairly irrelevant.

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Life has not existed for an infinite amount of time, nor will be.

Completely disproves the theory of god. /clap And, how do you know? I mean, what if each "life", if each "person", is like their own personal 1 player, 1 life video game? Poof. Or, upon death, it just resets and we "reroll" by always pushing the random button? Or we are in a little marble, like in Men in Black. I love all of the possibilities.

[Zavri]

If it was real and you retained your memories I would come up with a "pass phrase" to confirm that someone I knew was dead was infact this new person that reincarnated. Oh course this would only work with people who aren't currently dead :P

If it was real and you retain no memories of past lives then nothing changes besides maybe the desire for suicide if I was a POW in a ISIS camp or something ridiculous.

[Ghostpanther]

Why? In reincarnation, as it's spoken of in religion, you don't actually remember your previous life. So why would it matter? It wouldn't.

Some supposedly do. But I do not believe in reincarnation, so not applicable for myself. I do not fear death and even if it reincarnation was real, nothing would change that for me. So you are correct. It wouldn't matter.

[Deleted]

Reincarnation without memory of previous lives: might as well not exist for all intends and purposes.

Reincarnation with memory of previous lives: biggest clusterfuck imaginable.
suddenly you have wars starting because some guy in another country ate your president in a previous life. And like, how would public opinion toward food change? any plant or animal could be a former human, but you would still have to eat, but then in the next life these people remember being killed for food. would farming methods for plants and animals chance if we knew they cuould be humans?
And like the standard trope of remembering thousands of (painful) deaths that makes you go crazy etc. and then there is the whole philosophical debate of wether you as a plant equals you as a whale equals you as a human equals you as a insect, since obviously these all experience existance vastly different but apparently its still your soul, it seems impossible to integrate all those memories somehow. you would have to be able to imagine seeing with human eyes, insect eyes, fish eyes, no eyes, etc to be able to have these memories of previous lives. it boggles the mind.

so i guess iwould fear death more because like most immortality concepts, its a terrible terrible fate in the long run.

[Velaniz]

Probably less, since that way I could liken it to going to sleep, since I'd be "waking up" again.